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| Post Apocalyptic Space Setting; Concept Viable? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 12 2015, 09:13 PM (298 Views) | |
| lordwebster | Jun 12 2015, 09:13 PM Post #1 |
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Mutant
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Hello my fellow post-apocalyptic gaming aficionados -I am currently working on a setting for my games. I started off with a fairly simple "generic" wasteland scenario for my games but my imagination has kinda went riot a bit and I'm wondering if developing a post-apocalyptic space setting is in fact a viable option? See I want to have inter-stellar travel remain a possibility since I love the idea of post-apocalyptic space battles (not even sure how this would work but it sounds fun) as well as having alien races involved as well alongside the usual post-apocalyptic denizens of raiders, mutants and madmen. My basic premise is this: Mankind unwittingly unleashes a unstable energy force across the galaxy which disables virtually all complex electronics which causes mass chaos and panic for humans and aliens. The game setting will take place a century or two after this chaos when new powers have emerged and overcome the difficulty of losing advanced technology. So while civilization is recovering, it is very much a Dark Age with warlords and tyrants rising everywhere, across thousands of world. I've thought about the pro's and cons of this setting: Pros: Limitless freedom for expansion Plenty of story telling opportunities Freedom to use basically any miniature on the market Cons: Stretches realism to the point of no return - how can you have star cruisers while still using beat up road warrior style cars? Dangerously close to Warhammer 40k territory Any thoughts on the viability of this setting would be greatly appreciated! Cheers, LordWebster |
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| nobody667 | Jun 13 2015, 03:54 AM Post #2 |
Wastelander
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Interesting ideas for a setting. You are right that it is dangerously close to WH40K, but still possibly able to make it different. Some questions and comments: Are there no electronics/computers? Did the 'event' knock them out, disable them, etc, but they can be repaired or remade? Is this a "Dies the Fire" type setting, where the ultra-high tech stuff just doesn't work? I could see this going down a 'Dune' type civilization, with mentats and no computers. Not sure how you handle space travel with out some higher tech stuff. Are you adding any mystical/magical/psionic elements? That gets even closer to WH40K or even Mutant Chronicles. If it just knocked some, or most stuff out and it could recover, even over a long time period, you get starships and Mad Max cars I guess. This sounds like Mechwarrior:Dark Age to some extent. That might be a bit of inspiration if that is the angle you are looking for. Another possibility could just be the complete collapse of the central power, maybe with some massive galactic weapons of destruction (to knock out some, but not all of the ultra-high tech stuff) and then the rise of various smaller powers, or even a new central 'empire'. Consider something along the lines of Falkenberg's Legion and Warworld by Jerry Pournelle (its his shared universe of Sauron super soldiers and a failing Co-Dominion Earth based government) It was also the setting for 'Mote in God's Eye' by Niven and Pournelle. There are some examples of the high tech society falling apart, I could see this kind of setting working out. Maybe it's a shattered space fleet trying to find a place to call it's home. they have some great high tech stuff to start, but without being able to resupply, they slowly turn less and less high tech. Constantly moving between worlds, trying to find a safe place. Add in a rag-tag fugitive fleet and you get Battlestar Galactica... I see potential. 
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| mattblackgod | Jun 13 2015, 08:57 AM Post #3 |
Big boss warlord dude!
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I pondered this many times and came to the conclusion that due to the size of the galaxy it just couldn't happen. Even if things happened at a thousand times the speed of light the outer world's would have plenty of time to batten down the hatches and weather the storm so to speak. They in time would be able to mount rescue missions. But this it your setting if you think it works, go for it. The galaxy is huge. Even our solar system is so large that even with hyper advance technology there would be many places where law and order just won't reach. Outer world's, moons and asteroid belts would be great places for many folks to carve out their own mini empires. My Wild Galaxy setting features the destruction of Earth and the end of the human empire. Its effect is similar to the fall of the Roman empire. A huge power vacuum is left and many new empires and countries are born fighting to survive. Pirates thrive in the chaos. |
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| lordwebster | Jun 13 2015, 05:14 PM Post #4 |
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Mutant
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Hi, thanks for the responses! I suppose I should delve a bit into what exactly the event was. Human explorers accidentally activated an ancient alien artifact on a remote, dead world. This mysterious artifact released a dark energy force throughout the galaxy which begun a process known as the "Severance" which caused absolute mayhem. While similar to EMP, it was also malicious - causing complex electronics and computers to shut down in some cases but in others go completely haywire. First it manifested as minor glitches in computer systems and navi-computers which caused financial systems to collapse as savings and accounts were just gone, spacecraft were misdirected into stars or far corners of the galaxy or shipping manifests for food supplies to colonies were deleted. This was first thought to be the work of cyber-terrorists but as the problem continued, it became clear that something else was at work. Slowly, the galaxy spanning civilization of man fell apart as it became clear that space travel, as it was then, was simply too dangerous. Communication became perilous and worlds became isolated. Soon, the damage of the Severance was causing significant losses of life. Safeguards on nuclear power stations failed causing meltdown, aircraft would fall out of the skies while star cruisers and space stations would simply drop out of orbit, crashing into cities causing untold destruction and worse, weapon silos holding the most devastating weapons were automatically launched across thousands of worlds. On planets where the population was dependent on supplies of food and water or required air supplies due to a poisonous atmosphere, the population there slowly but surely died. On larger, more established worlds, panic and disorder spread as economic chaos, paranoia and fear took hold. The chaos only got worse as time went by. Effective government from Earth collapsed. Worlds that had been once friends now became enemies as each other blamed the other the destruction of their world. Then humanity's servants, the machines crafted by their own hand, turned on them. Corrupted by the malevolent viruses spread by the Severance, robots turned on their human masters. Domestic robots slaughtered their owners in their own homes, massacres occurred in shopping centers and hospitals as the robot run security systems went hostile and worse of all, military robots began launching deadly assaults using advanced military firepower to cause massive casualties and furthered the chaos and panic. Desperate scientists across the galaxy slowly began to develop a theory. Their systems were being systematically attacked by a malevolent electronic program of unknown origin. The only electronic devices found to be unaffected were simple vacuum tube ones. Any kind of advanced circuitry or, the most dangerous thing of all, asking a machine "yes" or "no" was a gateway to chaos. The very idea of such a malevolent energy was unbelievable but it was very real and destroying the complex and integrated computer systems that human civilization was built on. The Severance was only the beginning, the first stage in the downfall of human civilization. A foreshadowing of the horror to come. The alien artifact was a beacon for an ancient alien evil - an extremely powerful and cruel force, known only as the Revenant. A nightmarish entity that can reanimate the dead, the Revenant are essentially space-travelling zombies that traveled from another galaxy to ours. The Revenant attacked humanity while it was on the brink and paralyzed. Its mighty fleets gone, communications disrupted and its worlds isolated from each other. Hundreds of worlds were infiltrated, infected and invaded. Eventually, new space technology was developed that avoided the use of highly complex computer systems (haven't settled on exactly what) and a degree of communications between worlds reestablished. A coalition of colonies, warlords and pirates assembled and was able to defeat the Revenant advance but were unable to stop it. The setting will be set 150 years after the halting of the Revenant. I imagine that a good degree of interstellar transport has been reestablished. Communication is possible only by starship courier. Factions are mostly limited to a few systems and even then they don't actually control entire planets but rather parts of many planets. Industry is recovering on most worlds with factories being reestablished but are more like early 20th century factories being very labour intensive to make up for the lack of automation and computers. I guess I just wanted to make my apocalypse setting more unique. I'll keep working on it. I do think this kind of setting has a lot of challenges compared to ordinary post-apocalyptic settings. |
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| Wiggles | Jun 23 2015, 10:18 PM Post #5 |
Super Mutant
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That sounds entirely possible (if not exactly realistic). In my mind you're conjuring up every single batshit action B and C movie from the 70's and 80's. You could certainly have individual planets where the majority of the population are cavemen, while a city of elite scientists build gleaming spires and androids c.f. Yor - hunter from the future - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doS-sxtlNfU Space elevators would make returning to space (relatively) cheap and easy. The distances involved would ensure that tech proliferation would take time, preserving the mediaeval stasis on some worlds - and regions within some worlds. |
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| Crazy Joe | Jun 24 2015, 04:17 PM Post #6 |
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Mutant Hunter
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There's actually quite a bit of gaming and media references for this. Gaming: Fading Suns, if I recall it postulated a slow decline of technology but may be a little too high tech. Same with BattleTech (MechWarrior). I'm a big fan of the Wasteworld RPG though it only discusses what happens on one declining high tech planet cut off from space. For books I recommend Runner and Logos Run by William Dietz. In them teleportation gates were used to send "tech destroying bombs" to every high tech planet (so starships still existed, but tech on the ground was wiped out). There was another book called The Long Forgetting where they used gates to send something through (can't remember what) that made people forget how to make and use technology. Of course, you've got the Firefly TV series. Here they escaped with what tech they could and that's why they have skimmers and lasers next to horses and 6 shooters as well as spaceships flying over head. Finally, there's a computer game called Convoy that might give you inspiration. It postulates that you have crashed your spaceship on a planet over run by bandits driving machine gun toting buggies. You have to drive your ground vehicles around and gather parts to rebuild your spaceship while fighting off these bandits. |
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| Snake966 | Jun 11 2016, 11:10 PM Post #7 |
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Mutant
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Actually this is very similar to old GDW (remember them) Traveller: The New Era. Technological virus released right in the middle of an Interstellar Civil War. Now its a struggle for some planets to get back into space. There will be a mixture of High and extremely Low technology across the known galaxy. Also check out: David Drake and S.M. Stirlings Bellevue series. Jerry Pournelle's King Davids Spacehip, Janissaries May have some ideas. |
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1:34 AM Jul 14